HUNTING -- Jim Hayden, Idaho Fish and Game Department regional wildlife manager, speaks frankly in a post he just made to update the status of elk and elk hunting on the Idaho Panhandle.

• Antlerless elk hunting remains severely curtailed, but there are signs of improving population trends in the St. Joe region.
• Numbers of younger bulls including spikes appears to be down, but the percentage of old bulls is high, so Hayden expects to see some wall hangers coming out of North Idaho this fall.

Read on for his complete post, plus his encouragement for hunters to participate in the development of Idaho's statewide elk management plan for the next 10 years.

IFG will hold an online chat for sportsmen to monitor or ask questions regarding elk management on Thursday, 5 p.m.-7 p.m.

Status of Elk in the Panhandle Zone

The Panhandle Zone is big:  7,779 square miles, and we have a lot of variation within the zone.  For example, elevations range from 1760 to 7709 feet, precipitation from less than 20 inches to over 100 inches annually, and land use from dry land agriculture to urban city, to remote rocky wilderness!  The Panhandle’s elk herds and hunters’ interests are likewise diverse.

In broad, general terms, bull elk hunting in the Panhandle is currently above our long term average.  This has required active management, with conversion of general cow elk hunting to limited entry (controlled) antlerless elk hunts, and elimination of cow elk hunting in about half of the zone.  (Those are hard pills for all of us to swallow, but they’re keeping us afloat.)  I’ve stuck a couple graphs at the end of this email showing the changes in bull and cow elk harvest over time.  At the same time, we are seeing increased problems elk herds growing near agricultural and urban areas.  Radio-collared elk are not switching to these areas, but the abundance of private property has allowed these herds to grow.  The increase in some of these newer areas has partially compensated for the decrease in some of our historical hunting areas.

Is everything hunky dory then?  No.  Cow elk hunting is an important part of our tradition in northern Idaho, and the draft plan specifically identifies that as an objective in the Panhandle Zone – providing general cow elk hunting opportunity where we can reasonably do so.  In a substantial part of the zone, though, too few calves are living to become yearlings (the reason why we’ve scaled back on cow elk hunting).   This is particularly true south of I90, but we see areas north of I90 with issues as well.  The plan lines out several strategies for us to address these management challenges.  There are no overnight or easy fixes, but the draft plan clarifies the path we’ll take to get there.  If you have a chance, go to the website and give us your insight!

Summer Elk Work in the Joe

What will bull hunting be like this year?  Based on observations and the lack of calf recruitment in recent years in the Joe, bull hunters here should expect to see fewer bulls this year than last, with very few spikes and raghorns.  There are some very old bulls however due to lower hunter densities, and I expect to see some really nice bulls from Units 6, 7, and 9.  Those (missing) satellite raghorns do a lot of bugling in the fall, so while there will be less bugling, there could be a very nice bull if you get close.  Much of our elk bunting, both for bulls and cows, is driven by cow and calf elk survival.

We’re looking at adult cow elk survival in the Avery area (Unit 6/7 border) using radio-telemetry.  We’re not through the year yet, but tentatively it looks like about 92% survival so far.  This percentage will go down as the year progresses further, but cow survival in the St. Joe could be decent this year.  We also did some summer elk flying to take an early look at calf recruitment, which appears to be the main driver of the elk decline in the Joe.  Summer flying is much more difficult (think leaves on the trees an no tracks in the snow), but it can provide useful insight. Despite a lack of scientific rigor.  Similar flights were conducted in the Joe during 1980, 1998, and 1999.  The average summer calf ratio over those years was 38 calves per 100 cows.  Although just scant information, this year’s summer ratio of 29 calves per 100 cow not surprisingly was below average, but not tremendously so.  That number will also drop between now and our mid-winter flights, and we’ll have to just wait until then to see how much.  It was interesting that ratios appeared about twice as good in the lower Joe than further upstream.  All in all, there’s at least some hope for a more promising year for elk in the Joe elk this year.  Regardless of where you hunt – best of luck to you!

New Elk Plan

There are a lot of considerations when managing our elk herds, and those considerations change quite a bit from year to year and place to place.  It keeps my job interesting and challenging at the same time.   Sometimes the change is an environmental factor like the recent re-colonization of Idaho by wolves, and sometimes it’s more of a social factor, like increased interest in use of ATVs while hunting.  To help us address these types of changes, the Department is guided by our Elk Management Plan.

After a couple years’ work, the Department released a new Elk Management Plan, which will guide us for about the next 10 years (2014 – 2024).  It’s a big document, 197 pages long, but much of that is broken down geographically.  For example, most of the general management information is in the first 76 pages (I know, that’s still a lot!).  Then there are usually just a couple pages for each of the 28 elk zones in the state.  If you want to cut to the chase, you can just go straight to the zone in which you’re interested.  I encourage you all to take a look and let us know how we might need to change this document to better reflect your objectives.  Keep in mind though, as hunters, we all have a little bit different idea of what elk management should include.  The final plan should pull that all together in the best manner possible, but we won’t all get our way.

The draft Plan can be downloaded and comments made from the Elk Planning site. 

Comments should be made before Sept. 22. 

If you want to participate (or just lurk), IFG will be holding an online chat regarding elk management on Thursday, Aug. 29, from 5 p.m.-7 p.m.